Famous houses – Page 8 – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 10, 2016September 29, 2017

The Burr House from “The Twilight Zone”

After what amounted to a nearly two-year stalking hiatus, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, is finally back! Let me reverse a bit and explain. Over the past couple of years, Mike has been busy working in production (yep, he actually toils away on movie sets now!), which hasn’t left much time for tracking down locations. I was having some trouble with a locale this past week, though, and on a whim decided to see if he could lend a hand. Mike was game and, lo and behold, the two of us were on the hunt once again, just like old times! The story of our quest, which is a bit of a long one, is detailed below.

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While doing some research on Say Anything . . . locations back in January, I came across a 1990 Los Angeles Times article which made mention of an old Victorian house in Monrovia that had been featured in an episode of The Twilight Zone. Perfect for my Haunted Hollywood postings, right? Though the exact episode was not named, the column stated that parakeets were flown through the residence during the shoot, so I assumed it would not be hard to figure out. I did a little digging, pinpointed the address of the property, headed right on over to Monrovia to stalk it shortly thereafter, and did not think much more about it until sitting down to write this post. As it turned out, even armed with such specific information regarding parakeets, identifying the episode proved arduous. My first course of action was to Google “The Twilight Zone episode” and “parakeets,” which yielded nothing. Then I literally spent hours scanning through old TTZ episodes and reading recaps, but came up with nada. Enter Mike. Literally five minutes after I texted him and told him of my quest in tracking down the “parakeet episode,” he texted me back with an answer. As he discovered, the episode was Season 1’s “Still Life,” which originally aired on January 3rd, 1986. I felt like a complete blonde when he told me his search process, which involved inputting the sentence “Which episode of The Twilight Zone filmed in Monrovia, CA?” The third result to be kicked back was a synopsis of “Still Life” on The New Twilight Zone website. Actor Robert Morris had provided the site with a behind-the-scenes photograph of the shoot which was posted with the caption, “ . . . the episode was shot in Monrovia, California in this beautiful home.” D’oh!

In real life, the dwelling is known as the Burr House and it was originally built in 1893 for Frank W. Burr and his family. The 18-room Queen Anne-style residence was constructed entirely of redwood at a cost of $2,800. At the time of its inception, it did not have heating, electricity, or even indoor bathrooms. Yep, the Burrs had to use an outhouse! That outhouse is still currently located on the property. The Burr family owned the site until 1975, which explains how so much of the home’s original detailing remains intact today, 123 years after it was built.

In 1979, Mary Ann and Ramon Otero purchased the residence and began an extensive renovation and restoration process. Today, the property boasts 5 bedrooms, 4,700 square feet of living space, several bathrooms (there are 4.5 to be exact), a pool, extensive gardens, a detached garage, and a half-acre plot of land.

In “Still Life,” the Burr House belongs to photographer Daniel Arnold (Robert Carradine), who, after visiting an estate sale, brings home an antique trunk which he later discovers has a secret compartment containing a camera that was last used during a 1913 National Geographic Society expedition to the Amazon River Basin.

As Daniel soon learns, during the expedition the camera captured the souls of several Curucai Indian tribesmen whom he inadvertently brings back to life.

The Burr House was used extensively in the episode.

The home’s actual interior was also featured throughout.

You can watch “Still Life” by clicking below.

As was noted in the Los Angeles Times (as well as in this Monrovia Patch article), the Burr House has appeared in countless movies, TV shows, and commercials over the years. In 1988, it was used as the Boon residence in a scene in Sweet Hearts Dance. Because most filming of the Boon home took place at a similar looking Victorian dwelling located at 113 Eden Street in Hyde Park, Vermont, I am guessing that the Burr House segment might have been part of a reshoot.

Mike Donnelly (Chris Farley) voted – and got stuck in the voting booth – outside of the property’s garage in the 1996 comedy Black Sheep.

You can see the garage in the photos below.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for his help in tracking down the correct The Twilight Zone episode!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Burr house, from the “Still Life” episode of The Twilight Zone, is located at 150 North Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia.

January 14, 2016February 16, 2016

Spencer’s House and Barn from “Pretty Little Liars”

Though all of the homes featured on Pretty Little Liars are pretty darn amazing design-wise, my personal favorite, hands-down, is the farm-like residence where Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) and her family live. So when I began tracking down the locales used in the pilot, which was shot in Vancouver, Spencer’s pad was at the top of my list of places to find. And find it, I did. While not much of the dwelling is visible from the street, sadly, I still had my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry drop by to snap some pics of it for me during a recent weekend trip to Canada.

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Spencer’s house played a pivotal role in the Pretty Little Liars pilot. Not only was the home shown repeatedly throughout the episode (though never in a full exterior shot) . . .

. . . but the Hastings’ family’s large barn was the site of the Liars’ slumber party, from which Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) mysteriously disappeared.

The real life interior of the residence, including the kitchen . . .

. . . and one of the bedrooms, was also used in the filming.

I spent so many hours searching for Spencer’s house that I honestly no longer remember the exact story of how I ended up finding it. What I do remember is scouring Google and Bing aerial views for Vancouver neighborhoods with large plots of land and eventually coming across the Southlands area. While perusing that region, I spotted a large home with a barn in the backyard and, voila, it matched what appeared on PLL.

Spencer’s house sits on an absolutely massive corner plot of land. So massive, in fact, that it has two addresses – 3275 Celtic Avenue and 7376 Blenheim Street.

As I mentioned, very little of the main house can be seen from the street due to the fact that it is surrounded by a huge wall of foliage.

But there is good news! Spencer’s barn is located on the Blenheim Street side of the property and it is visible from the road, though the area that can be seen is not the area that appeared on Pretty Little Liars. In the pilot, the only portion of the barn shown was the eastern portion, while the western side is the side that is visible from the street. Sadly, that side of the barn is not really recognizable, but as you can see below the barn doors are a direct match to what was shown onscreen.

According to the book Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide, the Blenheim Street side of the property is a commercial horse facility known as Golden Oaks Stables.

Once Pretty Little Liars got picked up by ABC Family (now Freeform) and filming moved to Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, a house on Midwest Street was tapped to stand in for the Hastings’ residence. That façade should look familiar to Gilmore Girls fans as it was formerly used as Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore’s (Alexis Bledel) home on the popular series.

Producers also had a re-creation of the Vancouver barn constructed in front of the Hastings’ home once the series got picked up.

Fun fact – all of the residences on Midwest Street are built with multiple facades so that they can mask as different properties depending on which way the camera is angled. The front of Spencer’s house is actually the back side of the dwelling that serves as Mona Vanderwaal’s (Janel Parrish) home on the series.

Interestingly, while the Vancouver house is no longer used for filming, it still pops up occasionally in establishing shots.

The interior of the Hastings’ residence was also re-created on a soundstage once production moved to Warner Bros. Though the re-creation is not an exact match to the Vancouver home, it is fairly close.

I am absolutely in love with the sitting area located just off of the family’s kitchen. I am so ready for a fireplace in my life! I’ll take that settee, too, while I’m at it.

Spencer’s bedroom set is also pretty fabulous. Actually, I should say “was” pretty fabulous. Sadly, it was dismantled last year when filming of the five-year time jump commenced.

Spencer’s room was my favorite out of all the girls (with Aria’s running a close second). I especially loved the metal “S” sign that hung on her wall.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Spencer’s house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 3275 Celtic Avenue/7376 Blenheim Street in Vancouver. The barn is situated on the Blenheim Street portion of the property. The mansion featured in the 2011 Disney Channel movie Geek Charming is located next door at 3233 Celtic Avenue.

January 8, 2016January 16, 2016

Aria’s House from “Pretty Little Liars”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – stalking begets stalking! One of the Vancouver locations I was most interested in finding from the Pretty Little Liars pilot was the gorgeous Craftsman-style house where doe-eyed beauty Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) lived. There was virtually nothing to go on, though – no address number, no street signs, no clues visible in the background. So I put that hunt on the back burner and instead set my sights on tracking down the DiLaurentis/St. Germain home from the episode. As fate would have it, finding it led me right to Aria’s house!

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While scanning through the pilot during my search, I almost fell out of my chair when I noticed that Aria’s house was actually visible in the background across the street from the DiLaurentis/St. Germain residence in the scene in which Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) walked Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson) home from school.

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, thanks to a visible address number, I was able to track down the DiLaurentis/St. Germain house in just a few minutes. And sure enough, when I looked across the street using Google Street View, there was Aria’s pad! Because I don’t have any trips to Vancouver planned in the coming year, my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, was nice enough to stalk the place for me during a recent (rainy) visit to Canada. Thank you, Kerry!

Sadly, Aria’s house looks a bit different today than it did when the pilot was shot back in December 2009. As you can see below, besides a color change from yellow and red to gray and white, most of the windows have been swapped out for new ones, and the roofline of the second story above the porch has been altered.

You can see some of the work being done in old Google Street View images from May 2015.

But if you toggle Street View back to May 2014, the home appears exactly as it did onscreen. Oh, how I wish I had gotten to see it before the alterations were made.

In real life, the residence boasts 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 5,000 square feet of living space.

Sadly, Aria’s awesome front porch swing is nowhere to be found.

Typically when shooting a pilot, the interior of a house will be utilized. Then if the series is picked up, that interior will be re-created on a soundstage for all future filming. That was not the case with this particular location. The segments that took place inside of Aria’s home in the pilot were not shot in Canada at all, actually, but at a practical house set on Midwest Street at Warner Bros. Studio. I did not realize that factoid until making screen captures for this post. In the scene in which Aria talked to her father, Byron (Chad Lowe), while standing in the family’s entry, the green doorway of a residence across the street was visible in the background. I knew that doorway belonged to a studio house immediately upon seeing it, did some further research, and discovered it was part of a façade that is, sadly, no longer standing.

The house once stood at the southern end of Midwest Street, but was dismantled in 2014 – along with the façade of Toby Cavanaugh’s (Keegan Allen) house – to make way for the studio’s newly-unveiled Stage 48: Script to Screen exhibit. You can see some faraway photographs I took of the structure while on a tour of the WB a few years back below.

Once I figured out the location of the green-doored façade, I was able to discern that the Montgomery house interior scenes from the pilot were shot inside of the home pictured below, which is also located on the southern edge of Midwest Street. Why were those segments shot at the WB lot and not on location in Vancouver like the rest of the pilot, you ask? Well, I looked into it and learned that the roles of both Byron and Aria’s brother, Mike (Cody Allen Christian), were recast after the pilot had been filmed, so any scenes involving them had to be re-shot. The vast majority of those scenes took place inside of the Montgomery home.

Interestingly, during one of my most recent visits to the WB back in June, I asked our tour guide for help in tracking down a couple of PLL locations that I knew were on the backlot, but that I couldn’t seem to find. He did not end up having time to show me the locales during the tour, so after it ended he took me and my friends on a private tour of the studio (it was amazing!), during which he pointed out the house below and informed us that it was used for exterior shots of Aria’s residence. As you can see, the bottom portion of the façade is painted to match the original coloring of the Vancouver home.

I can only recall one time when the façade exterior appeared on the series (though I am sure there are other instances). In the Season 6 episode titled “Don’t Look Now,” a very tight shot of the home was shown in the scene in which Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) dug through Aria’s trash, looking for her anti-anxiety medication.

All of the homes on Midwest Street are designed in such a way that their various sides can appear as different properties. The actual “front” of the structure that is used as Aria’s house is pictured below. The area that appears onscreen in Pretty Little Liars can be found on this residence’s southern side.

Our tour guide had also informed us that the interior of the home contained the set of Aria’s living room. And while sheet-covered furniture and props were visible through the front window of the house (as you can see below), which points toward a set being located there, I did not put a whole lot of credence into his assertion. Because the interior of Aria’s house is utilized with such regularly, I figured the sets were most likely situated on a soundstage and not inside of the Midwest Street dwelling. But now it appears that his information was correct.

Though I do still believe that some of the Montgomery home interiors exist inside of a soundstage (most notably, the set for Aria’s bedroom), it does seem that at least a portion of them were constructed inside of the Midwest Street façade.

UPDATE – I just came across the website of Pretty Little Liar’s production designer Rachel Kamerman and a caption on her portfolio page confirms what our tour guide told us. As you can see below, according to Rachel, the interior of the Montgomery house is a permanent set built on the W.B. backlot and not inside of a soundstage.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Aria’s house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 1990 West 19th Avenue in Vancouver. The DiLaurentis home from the episode is located across the street at 1995 West 19th Avenue.

January 6, 2016January 13, 2016

Ali’s House from “Pretty Little Liars”

Pretty Little Liars will be returning to the small screen on January 12th and I could NOT be more excited! Though I found the recent mid-season finale to be absolutely ridiculous, not to mention a total let-down (this was SO me and my mom while viewing it), to the point that I thought I might never watch again, I now find myself thrilled that new episodes are only a few days away! As detailed in my February 2015 post titled “The Pretty Little Liars Guide to Warner Bros. Studio,” the ABC Family (soon to be re-named Freeform) series is shot pretty much in its entirety on the WB lot in Burbank. The pilot, though, was lensed in Vancouver and last year I managed to track down most of the locales that appeared in the episode. (There is one that remains unfound and a real thorn in my side, but more on that later.) My good friend/fellow stalker Kerry lives in the Pacific Northwest and recently took a weekend trip up to Vancouver. I asked if she wouldn’t mind stalking some PLL locations for me while she was in town and stalk them she did! Every single one! Thank you, Kerry! So I figured what better time to blog about them than in the days leading up to the premiere – and what better locale to start with than the DiLaurentis family house, which played such a pivotal role in the pilot.

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For those not in the know, the pilot of Pretty Little Liars centers around the disappearance of a teenage girl named Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse). The mysterious details of her disappearance, which took place a year prior, are revealed in flashbacks. In the episode, it is said that the DiLaurentis family, distraught over losing Ali, has chosen to sell their large Victorian-style residence and a new family is shown moving in.

The home was actually the first locale I tracked down from the episode. It was a snap to find thanks to its unique architecture and a “1995” number placard that I spotted above the front door in the scene in which Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) welcomes the new girl, Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson), to the neighborhood. Address number in hand, I did a Google search for “1995,” “Victorian house,” and “Vancouver,” and the first link to pop up was a real estate listing for a residence located at 1995 West 19th Avenue. Sure enough, the images featured in the listing were a perfect match to Ali’s house. Wahoo!

The massive dwelling, which was originally built in the 1920s, is just as stunning in real life as it appeared onscreen (as least as evidenced by Kerry’s photos). In actuality, though, the property is not a single-family home, but a multi-unit dwelling.

The residence appears a couple of times in the pilot, most notably in the scene in which (spoiler alert!) Ali’s body is discovered buried in the side yard.

The actual interior of the property was also featured in the episode. Not only was one of the home’s bedrooms used as Maya’s bedroom . . .

. . . but, in an odd twist, the dwelling’s ornate wood-paneled stairwell masked as a back area of the church where Ali’s funeral was held. It is on those stairs that Ezra Fitzgerald (Ian Harding) and Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) share a passionate kiss. You can check out some photographs of the stairway here.

Once Pretty Little Liars got picked up, production moved from Vancouver to California and the DiLaurentis house was “re-created” in the Jungle area of the Warner Bros. Studio backlot. I say “re-created” because the façade that was constructed looks absolutely nothing like the house that appeared in the pilot.

Aside from a large set of entry steps, the two homes don’t resemble each other in the slightest, as you can see below.

As for the location I mentioned earlier that remains a thorn in my side? I cannot for the life of me seem to track down the interior of Hollis Bar & Grill, where Aria and Ezra met for the first time.

My buddy Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, did manage to locate the building used in the establishing shot. The exterior of Hollis Bar & Grill is actually that of Ashland City Hall, located at 20 East Main Street in Ashland, Oregon. The image shown in the scene was likely stock footage, as no actual filming took place in the Beaver State. The interior, though, remains a mystery. If any of my fellow stalkers are familiar with the Vancouver area, please take a look at the above images and let me know if you can identify the watering hole pictured in them.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The DiLaurentis house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 1995 West 19th Avenue in Vancouver.

December 22, 2015December 21, 2015

Robolights – One of the World’s Most Unusual Christmas Displays

I’ve been lamenting to the Grim Cheaper lately about Palm Springs’ lack of Christmas décor. Sure there are some lights displayed in various shopping centers and on downtown streetlights, but overall the desert just doesn’t have the feeling of the holidays – at least not when compared to Los Angeles. There is one Movie Colony-area home, though, that takes decorating to a whole new level. The residence is known as Robolights and, while it is actually adorned year-round, come December it is transformed into a very unusual winter wonderland.

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The Grim Cheaper and I stumbled upon Robolights during one of our very first trips to the desert a good ten or so years ago and we could hardly believe our eyes. The attraction – though it is a private residence, “attraction” seems a better word to describe the place – was the brainchild of a twelve-year-old boy named Kenny Irwin Jr., who began building a robot display using scrap materials in the yard of his family’s Palm Springs home in 1986.

As Kenny grew, so did his Robot-themed exhibit. His family’s 5-bedroom, 4-bath, 3,931-square-foot home sits on almost two acres of land and, today, almost every square inch of it is covered with the installation. Instead of being overwhelmed by the massive display that has taken over the property, Irwin’s family is understanding, even encouraging of his art. In a recent Los Angeles Times article about Robolights, Kenny’s father described the residence as Kenny’s “canvas” on which “he can create anything that he imagines.” Something tells me my parents would not be nearly as accepting if I became impassioned to build something similar at their home. Winking smile

Like Walt Disney said of Disneyland, Robolights will never be completed. Kenny works on the exhibit day in and day out, creating new sculptures and display elements out trash and discarded scrap materials. Currently, over 200 statues dot the property, some of them close to 50 feet tall! His neighbors seem to be as understanding of the project as his parents. According to the Times article, many of the objects used in his sculptures were donated by nearby residents.

Kenny describes Robolights as an “artistic wonderland” that “comprises close to a thousand tons worth of junk that I’ve transformed into art that would have otherwise ended up in landfills.” Indeed, the place is a brightly-colored dreamland of almost post-apocalyptic effigies, the likes of which I can pretty much guarantee you won’t find anywhere else.

Though not a filming location, the installation has brought Kenny some fame over the years. In 2010, Conan O’Brien pegged him to decorate the Conan set for the holidays. The result is pictured below. You can watch a video of its unveiling here. Kenny also designed a temporary 400-square-foot Christmas-and-robot-themed exhibit titled “Have Yourself a Happy Little Robotmas” for Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum in 2013.

Kenny’s main focus, though, is Robolights. The attraction can be viewed from the street year-round . . .

. . . but it really comes alive during the holidays.

Come Christmastime, Kenny decks the place out with close to 9 million twinkle lights and, for a suggested $5 donation, welcomes guests onto his property to get an up-close view of his version of a winter wonderland. Robolights has become a holiday staple for desert denizens, with more than 20,000 visitors walking through it each year.

Kenny describes the celebratory display as a “fusion of robotic, holiday and extraterrestrial themes giving visitors a holiday experience like no other.” Sadly, the GC and I have yet to visit Robolights during Christmastime, but are hoping to make it out there this year. You can see some photographs of it in all of its yuletide glory here and here. Even a non-holiday visit, though, allows for a completely unique and awe-inspiring experience.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Robolights is located at 1077 East Granvia Valmonte in Palm Springs. You can visit the property’s Facebook page here. The holiday display is currently running nightly from 4 to 9:30 p.m. through January 3rd. Though admission is free, a $5 donation is requested.

October 23, 2015September 29, 2017

The Rindge House from “The Brasher Doubloon”

There are few things the Grim Cheaper loves more than historic sites. So when we came across a massive dwelling that appeared to have a past while on our way to stalk the Beckett Residence in September 2012, we stopped to take a closer look. Figuring the place had appeared onscreen at some point, I also snapped some photos of it. I didn’t end up doing much research on the home until recently, though. As it turns out, the property is known as the Rindge House and it was built at the turn of the 20th Century for one of L.A.’s most prominent citizens.

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The Rindge House was originally constructed in 1903 for wealthy businessman Frederick Hastings Rindge. Frederick not only co-established the Union Oil Company and the Los Angeles Edison Electric Company, but his family was largely responsible for developing Malibu. (I blogged about Frederick’s daughter’s home, the Adamson House, here.)

The property was designed by Frederick L. Roehrig, the same architect who also gave us the Stimson House from House II: The Second Story, the Andrew McNally House from Kingdom Come, the Lincoln Clark House from Little Black Book, and Castle Green in Pasadena (an oft-filmed locale that I have yet to blog about).

Sadly, Frederick Rindge passed away in 1905, just two years after the manse was completed. His wife, May, continued living on the premises until she, too, passed away in 1941. After May’s death, the property was utilized for a time as both a convent and a home for women. At some point, it was reverted back to a private residence and it remains so today. You can read a more detailed history of the Rindge House on the Big Orange Landmarks blog here.

According to Zillow, the Chateauesque-style pad, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1972, boasts 15 bedrooms, 9 baths, 11,704 square feet of living space, and 1.73 acres of land.

The GC and I had a blast walking around the perimeter of the property and looking at all of its unique detailing, like the mailbox and light post pictured below.

Because of its massive size and its age, the Rindge House definitely gives off an ominous aura. The huge spider we spotted hanging out on the fence outside didn’t help to combat that image.

A man named Mike had commented on the Big Orange Landmarks post that he used to live at the Rindge House and that many productions had been shot there. I got in touch with him in the hopes that he might remember some of the productions lensed on the premises and not only did he get back to me right away, but he proved to be a vast wealth of information! As it turns out, the property has a film resume that dates back to 1947! That year, it masked as the Murdock mansion, which is said to be located “all the way out” in Pasadena, in the noir The Brasher Doubloon.

The eastern portion of the residence, as well as the front porch and doorway were featured in the film.

I am fairly certain that the interior of the Murdock mansion was a set. You can check out what the real life interior of the Rindge House looks like here.

In the Season 3 episode of Wonder Woman titled “The Man Who Could Not Die,” which aired in 1979, the Rindge House served as the residence of evil scientist Joseph Reichman (Brian Davies).

Ironically enough, though the home was said to be in Topanga Canyon in the episode, a sign with its real life name and address was shown pretty prominently in a scene. (Love the special effects below!)

The interior of the Rindge House was featured quite prominently in “The Man Who Could Not Die.”

As you can see, it is absolutely stunning inside!

The property’s large guest house was also visible in the episode.

In the 1980 CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Haunting of Harrington House,” the home masked as Harrington House, an old hotel that Polly Ames (Dominique Dunne) investigates for paranormal activity during a break from boarding school. For whatever reason, an establishing shot of the residence is never shown in the episode. Only close-ups of the porte-cochère . . .

. . . and the interior appeared onscreen.

That same year, the Rindge House was featured in another CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Treasure Of Alpheus T. Winterborn.” In the episode, the property masqueraded as the Winterborn Public Library. Sadly, as Mike informed me, during the filming a 40-year-old stuntwoman named Odile Astie was killed while performing a stunt in which she was supposed to fall off the roof of the home onto airbags situated twenty-five feet below. Some plastic padding that Astie was wearing caught on the gutter during the sequence, though, causing her to land on the ground instead of the airbags. You can read more about the tragedy here.

The inside of the Rindge House masked as two different places in “The Treasure Of Alpheus T. Winterborn.” It first appeared as the interior of the Winterborn Public Library.

And it was also featured as the interior of Alpheus Winterborn’s former house.

I was shocked to discover while watching that the exterior of the Winterborn home was none other than the Weller Residence, which I blogged about on Wednesday.

And I was further shocked to discover that the episode starred Keith Coogan, who is married to my friend Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog!

In the 1982 comedy (and I use that term loosely) Slapstick (of Another Kind), the Rindge House was where twins Wilbur (Jerry Lewis) and Eliza Swain (Madeline Kahn) lived.

The interior of the home was also featured in the movie.

For Pat Benatar’s 1982 “Shadows of the Night” music video, both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the Rindge House were turned into a Nazi compound.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

In 1983’s Private School, the interior of the Rindge House stood in for the interior of Cherryvale Academy for Girls.

Oddly enough, two different exteriors were shown as the outside of Cherryvale Academy in the movie, neither of which was the Rindge House. The first exterior shown was that of the “Batman mansion” in Pasadena, which I blogged about here.

The other exterior shown was that of a house located at 4839 Louise Avenue in Encino. That same residence was also where Roger Azarian (Matthew Perry) lived in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “April Is the Cruelest Month.” You can read a post I wrote about it here.

The close-ups of the exterior of Cherryvale Academy were shot at the Rindge House, however.

Mike also informed me that the Rindge House appeared in another episode of CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre, but he could not remember which episode, and in the 1980 made-for-television movie Scout’s Honor, which I, unfortunately, could not find a copy of to make screen captures for this post.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Mike for all of the help he provided with this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Rindge House, from The Brasher Doubloon, is located at 2263 South Harvard Boulevard in the Adams-Normandie area of Los Angeles.

October 20, 2015September 29, 2017

New Discover L.A. Post About Film Noir Locales

I had to take my mom into Los Angeles yesterday for a doctor appointment, so I do not have a new post for today . . . but I do have a new post up at Discover Los Angeles. It’s about film noir locations, so be sure to check it out.

October 12, 2015September 29, 2017

Gramma-Jess’ House from “Poltergeist II: The Other Side”

I have never seen Poltergeist, which, considering my love of the ‘80s and all things spooky, is rather shocking. I tried to remedy the situation this past weekend, but the Grim Cheaper was having none of it, unfortunately. I did recently stalk a location from the sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, though. I had come across a post on the Then & Now Movie Locations blog about the residence used as Gramma-Jess’ (Geraldine Fitzgerald) house in the flick and became quite intrigued. Not only is the dwelling gorgeous, but it is located in Altadena, in close proximity to my old home. So I ran right out to see it in person.

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Their house having imploded in Poltergeist, the Freeling family – Steve (Craig T. Nelson), Diane (JoBeth Williams), Robbie (Oliver Robins), and Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) – moves in with Diane’s mom, Gramma-Jess (Geraldine Fitzgerald), in Poltergeist II: The Other Side. Virtually all of the movie takes place at the large Craftsman-style residence, which is said to be located in Phoenix, Arizona.

Amazingly, the house looks very much the same today as it did onscreen in 1986.

Love the images below!

And LOVE that the driveway is exactly the same as it appeared onscreen!

A few areas of the home were used in the filming, including the front exterior . . .

. . . the backyard . . .

. . .and the front porch.

Interiors were filmed on a soundstage at MGM Studios in Culver City (which is now Sony Pictures Studios). According to the Poltergeist II production notes, “Preceded by months of intensive preparatory work, the production fully occupied two of the largest soundstages at MGM’s famed Culver City studio lot. On Stage 30, [production designer Ted] Haworth and his crew constructed a full-scale house, duplicating in exacting detail the real-life house selected to represent Gramma Jess’ home in the film –– inside and out.”

Because it is obvious that most of the exteriors were shot at the actual home in Altadena, I am guessing that the replica exteriors mentioned in the notes were only used for more close-up, tight shots of the outside of the residence, such as in the scene below. UPDATE – I recently spoke to David, who runs the amazing Poltergeist Fan Website, and it turns out that my hunch was correct. David informed me that the residence’s backyard and garage were re-created on a soundstage for use in a few night scenes, including the scene in which the Freelings ran out the back door of the house, through the backyard and into the garage, where they found Carol Anne hiding in the station wagon.

In real life, Gramma-Jess’ house, which was built in 1913, boasts three bedrooms, two baths, 2,766 square feet of living space, and a 0.53-acre plot of land. The property was last sold in 1973 for $18,500, which cracks me up being that Zillow now estimates its worth at around $1.5 million.

The home is absolutely gorgeous in person and I am quite surprised that it is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

While researching this post, I was floored to discover that the Poltergeist franchise is laced with behind-the-scenes mystery and intrigue. According the the television special Real Fear: The Truth Behind the Movies, the original 1982 film is said to be loosely based on supposed real life events that took place at a one-story ranch-style house belonging to the Hermann family in the Long Island suburb of Seaford. In early 1958, the Hermanns began experiencing many odd occurrences at the home. James and Lucille and their two children witnessed random objects flying across the room and furniture toppling over for no apparent reason. The disturbances only lasted about five weeks and the family attributed them to an Indian burial ground located nearby. You can read a more in-depth article about the Hermann hauntings here, though there is some contention about their connection to Poltergeist. There is also quite a bit of contention over who actually directed the first installment. While Tobe Hooper is listed on the credits, many believe that Steven Spielberg was actually at the helm. Mystery also shrouds the re-shot ending of the third movie, which no one involved in the production seems to want to discuss. And, of course, there is the so-called “Poltergeist curse,” which I talked about in my post about the house from the original film. For those who want to delve deeper into the intrigue surrounding the movies, I highly recommend checking out the Poltergeist Fan Website.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to the Then & Now Movie Locations blog for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Gramma- Jess’ house from Poltergeist II: The Other Side is located 1589 Homewood Drive in Altadena.

July 23, 2015July 16, 2015

Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – About the “Vacation” House

Don’t forget to read my latest post for L.A.mag.com, about the Griswold house from National Lampoon’s Vacation. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

July 14, 2015July 13, 2015

That Pink Door

I have yet to really hop aboard the Pinterest bandwagon, but I know I’m in the minority on that one. Those who are Pinterest-philes are most definitely familiar with what has come to be known as “That Pink Door.” That Pink Door is actually the brightly-hued front door of a residence in the Indian Canyons neighborhood of Palm Springs. The home also pops up regularly on Instagram (do a search for #thatpinkdoor and you’ll be inundated with blush-colored images) as well as on countless fashion blogs, which is how I came to discover it. I have long been obsessed with fashion blogger Julia Engel, of Gal Meets Glam. Back in May, Julia, her BFF Jordan Jones and their friend Vero Suh visited Palm Springs for what they dubbed a “Best Bebs Weekend.” While in town, they snapped some photos at That Pink Door. When I saw the pics pop up on Julia, Jordan and Vero’s respective websites, as well as the Style Me Pretty website, a few weeks later, I became enamored of the place – and was shocked that I had never heard of it before. So I immediately added it to my To-Stalk list and finally made it over there last week.

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I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I totally stalked Julia while she was in town. I follow her on Snapchat (@galmeetsglam) and could tell from one of her videos that she was eating at Norma’s at the Parker Palm Springs. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there in the hopes of getting a pic with her. As it turns out, Julia could not have been nicer! Jordan and Vero were incredibly sweet, as well, and we all wound up chatting for a good ten minutes. I also ended up later purchasing the romper that Julia had on when we met, much to the GC’s chagrin. As I said, I am obsessed! I just think she’s adorable and has such a fabulous and unique fashion sense. If you haven’t checked out her website before, you definitely should! But I digress.

The That Pink Door residence is absolutely massive in person, much larger than I expected it to be.

The post and beam-style home was originally built in 1968 and boasts four bedrooms, five baths, 5,310 square feet and a 0.57-acre plot of land.

The pad’s pink door came courtesy of interior designer Moises Esquenazi, who purchased the residence with his partner, Bryan Graybill, in 2004. At the time, the property was unkempt, outdated and begging for a remodel. The two quickly began redesigning the space into a mid-century modern dream home with such features as glass walls, two fireplaces, a billiard room with a sunken bar, a 75-foot pool with an inlaid tanning shelf, a 12-person spa, two outdoor bars, three fire pits, and an outdoor movie theatre. You can check out what the interior of the home looks like here. While pretty, I had hoped there would be a lot more pink.

The home’s cherry on top, of course, is the pastel pink front door. While Moises and Bryan sold the pad for a whopping $1,820,000 in 2008, the new owners have, thankfully, not touched the color of the door.

The residence has won many accolades, including being featured as one of the “Best Homes in America” in the 25th Anniversary issue of Metropolitan Home magazine. Palm Springs Life also published a piece on it in November 2006. And while the property is said to have been featured on an HGTV program, for the life of me I cannot figure out which program. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: “That Pink Door” is located at 1100 East Sierra Way in the Indian Canyon area of Palm Springs.